


Every Time He Watches Her

by LadyLaguna



Category: Final Fantasy VI
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-07-13 01:28:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7132568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyLaguna/pseuds/LadyLaguna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Man I hate titling these things. Stargazing! Cute fluff! Edgar twiddles his fingers a little!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Time He Watches Her

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline is dubious. Likely somewhere between "Terra's an esper!" and "The world is over!" I feel like they must have had some downtime now and then, didn't they? Depending on how much grinding you did in the desert. C:
> 
> For juliahut@tumblr, who occasionally works on a fantastic comic version of FF6 so check it out if you haven't.

Each arrow hit its mark with perfect accuracy, and the sound of splintering wood echoed across the courtyard. Crowing triumphantly, Edgar turned from the five mannequins toward Terra.

She hadn’t seen a thing. Seated on a pile of sandbags that the guards would later tackle, she stared straight upward at the night sky. With a resigned sigh, His Majesty followed her gaze. The night was crystal clear, and thousands of pinpricks of light danced against the inky black canopy above. A shooting star flickered in and out of existence somewhere toward the north, and Terra gasped softly. The sound carried easily on the night air, where only the two of them dwelt.

In that moment, Edgar wished that his name was ‘Orion.’ Because nothing the King of Figaro did seemed to impress the esper girl. Quiet, he watched her, placing his crossbow aside.

She shivered. Changing one’s wardrobe throughout the course of the day was common in Figaro, but Terra had yet to catch on to the necessity of it. Or, rather, she had yet to learn that she could wear whatever the hell she wanted, when she wanted. It was often up to Locke to gently nudge her into washing up and changing when they were on the road. Only recently had she begun speaking up when she was hungry, instead of waiting for someone to offer her food.

Edgar removed his cape and approached her in a few long strides. Carefully, he draped the heavy material over her shoulders and she finally acknowledged his existence.

“How can it be so cold in a desert?” she asked, both confused and incredulous.

Perching on the corner of a bag, nearly doubled onto himself at his height, he smiled at her. “That’s because of all the dry sand. During the day it absorbs all the light from the sun and reflects it back, so it gets really hot.” He gestured with a palm toward the ground, indicating radiation. “But once the sun sets, the heat doesn’t have anywhere to stay. So it just… goes away!”

Pursing her lips, Terra pondered this. Then she pointed toward the moon, looming round and large just slightly above the exterior castle wall. “What about the moonlight, then? Is it cold?”

Edgar shook his head. “Would you believe that moonlight is actually sunlight? The moon catches light from the sun, just like the sand does. We know that because when we get between the sun and the moon, we see our shadow. That’s why it looks like a crescent sometimes.”

“That’s the same moon?!”

“Yeah,” Edgar laughed. “It’s with us all the time, even when we don’t see it. Kind of like… uh… Locke.”

“So the moon is sneaky.” Terra smiled fondly as she looked at it. Edgar felt the slightest hint of jealousy, wondering who she was imagining in the face of that distant orb. “Does that make you the sun?”

“Oh, my darling, you do flatter me,” Edgar purred, even though he knew the suave act didn’t work on her.

She giggled. “And what am I?”

“Beautiful,” Edgar said, before he could stop himself.

“That’s not something you find in the sky!” Terra replied, indignant.

“I beg to differ.” Edgar bit his lip, tugging on an errant green curl at her temple. “There’s no end to the beauty of the sky… don’t you think? It never looks the same twice… Every time you watch it, you find something new about it to love.”

Terra looked skeptical; she was knowledgeable enough about Edgar and his ways to suspect he was practicing his lines on her. Locke had warned her numerous times about it, after all. But his gaze was so penetrating and sincere that she couldn’t help but meet it.

“Love… huh?” she repeated, voice soft.

Blanching, Edgar looked upward. “I was talking about… the sky. You know.”

He wasn’t, not at all, and she didn’t understand what it really meant, or that he had never spoken to another in such a way, and that sort of terrified him.

Terra, by contrast, was terrified by any number of other things. And he understood that, and tried very hard to be careful with her. But it only made him ache to take her into his arms all the more, and protect her from all of it. Teach her to be strong on her own.

Confused by Edgar’s deflection, Terra leaned against his arm. Eyes still trained on the sky, she fell quiet.

Feeling like an ass, Edgar twiddled his fingers. “...this is nice, isn’t it…?”

“Mm hmm,” Terra agreed.

Edgar chanced to take her hand, and realized she was still cold. Rubbing her tiny hands between his much larger palms, he tried to warm her up. Never mind that she could conjure fire from her fingertips. He still didn’t understand the nature of magic itself, or how her skin always seemed to prickle with it, or how she was still so terrifyingly beautiful when she changed form. He only knew that she was small and confused and so lovely when she smiled. “We should… make this a… a thing. Do you agree? When we’re here at the castle together. We should come out and look at the sky when we can.”

“Okay,” Terra said, with a smile.

She snuggled against him, likely more to seek his warmth than out of any sort of affection. But it felt like a victory to him. Reaching to wrap the cape around them both, he let her curl up beneath the fall of his arm.

This felt more satisfying than at least half of all his sexual conquests put together.


End file.
